Tomori joined Chelsea at the age of seven and the defender has revealed he almost quit the club after questioning whether he was capable of playing at a higher level.
Chelsea defender Fikayo Tomori has enjoyed a brilliant breakthrough season under Frank Lampard but things could have turned out very differently for the young centre back.
“Once I’ve left the centre of excellence, I’m going to Cobham and obviously this is proper Cobham, I’d see Tammy [Abraham] there, Dom Solanke,” Tomori told Chelsea TV.
“I noticed that I couldn’t just pick the ball up and run through everyone. So after that I got back in the car and I told my parents: “I’m not coming back here anymore.” “It was obviously a level up and my dad said: ‘No, you’re going to come back.’
“It wasn’t the fact that he was saying: ‘You must be a footballer, you must play football,’ it was kind of like, you are at a level where you need to challenge yourself.
“There is no point playing with people that you find it too easy, if you come here and challenge yourself you are going to get better and I am glad he had that take on it.”
Tomori will be happy he listened to his dad as he has broken into the first team and made 22 appearances for the Blues before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus.